Category Archives: Articles

Commencing a double-decker quarantine, here’s how I came to be here and what I will be doing in this time. Plus, Ask Me Anything!

As my body is being seared, and in front of me stands a burly Kyrgyz fellow, butt-naked but for his woollen hat, whirling a towel around like a lasso and causing us untold discomfort, it occurs to me I should write about the Russian banya.

I quite often get questioned on how I bid people farewell. Here is why.

The first day from a spontaneous hitchhiking trip across Kyrgyzstan.

Utkur knocks the gong, before beginning the mantra, “Naaam-uuuuu-myooooh hoooooo reeeeeng gehhhhhhh kyooooooo”, in a deeply resonant, throaty chant that sends goosebumps shooting down my arms and makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

There is nothing in the digital sphere that can compete with the handwritten letter.

As I stop short of the precipice, I think, “Wouldn’t this be fun if there wasn’t the impending doom, and I had some gloves and a jacket and some boots on.”

A short and sweet piece relating my first impressions of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

“If you don’t feel securely situated in Live, Laugh, Love, then you should probably Load, Aim, Fire.”

As a drinker of enthusiasm myself, I endorse highfalutin ways of saying a slurp of the red stuff with friends and music is restorative, and can give more than it takes from you.